UT lets West Virginia get away in overtime

By Mike Finger :
January 9, 2013
: Updated: January 9, 2013 11:42pm

Javan Felix (left), pressured by West Virginia’s Jabarie Hinds during the first half, played a game-high 42 minutes for UT in Wednesday’s losing effort. He had 11 points and four assists.

Photo By Alberto Martinez/AP

Texas' Javan Felix (3) shoots against West Virginia during the first half of their NCAA college basketball game, Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2013, in Austin, Texas.

Photo By Alberto Martinez/Associated Press

Texas' Cameron Riley (55) is pressured by West Virginia's Aaric Murray (24) and Deniz Kilicli (13) as he tries to shoot during the first half of their NCAA college basketball game, Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2013, in Austin, Texas.

Photo By Alberto Martinez/Associated Press

Texas' Sheldon McClellan (1) dunks against West Virginia during the first half of their NCAA college basketball game, Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2013, in Austin, Texas.

Photo By Alberto Martinez/Associated Press

West Virginia's Terry Henderson (15) grabs a rebound against Texas' Connor Lammert during the first half of their NCAA college basketball game, Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2013, in Austin, Texas.

AUSTIN — Right about the time passes into the front row gave way to multiple air-balled jumpers and shots off the side of the backboard, it became clear that Wednesday's Texas-West Virginia game at the Erwin Center had turned into an epic battle of ineptitude.

And once again, the Longhorns proved difficult to out-inept.

UT blew a 13-point second-half lead, including a 10-point edge in the final 3½ minutes of regulation, and allowed the Mountaineers to get away with an ugly 57-53 overtime win.

For the Longhorns, the loss was eerily similar to one last month, when they wilted in similar fashion against UCLA at Reliant Stadium in Houston. In the process, UT (8-7 overall, 0-2 Big 12) also saw its fading hopes of reaching a 15th consecutive NCAA tournament take another hit.

In overtime, the Longhorns were undone not only by their usual offensive inefficiency, but also by an inability to rebound. Leading by two points midway through the extra period, WVU (8-6, 1-1) grabbed three consecutive offensive rebounds on one possession and snagged another on its next trip.

“It's just not being tough,” UT forward Jonathan Holmes said. “We didn't finish the game (last Saturday) against Baylor and we didn't finish the game (Wednesday).”

That made every moment UT had the ball valuable. But trailing 55-53 with 15.8 seconds left, the Longhorns couldn't even get a shot off, as Ioannis Papapetrou threw an ill-advised pass that was stolen by Aaric Murray, who led WVU with 12 points and 10 boards.

The Longhorns actually needed a last-gasp shot to even force overtime.

After Eron Harris gave the Mountaineers their first lead of the second half on a corner 3-pointer with 16.4 seconds left in regulation, UT's Javan Felix missed a layup at the other end. With five seconds left, the Longhorns inbounded the ball to Holmes, a career 25 percent 3-point shooter who had two defenders leaping in his face.

Somehow, though, Holmes' high-arcing three from the corner found the bottom of the net, sending the game to overtime.

The Longhorns and Mountaineers began the night as the two worst-shooting teams in the Big 12, and then spent much of the night trying to prove their statistics were no fluke. In fact, up until WVU's late rally, the only suspense appeared to be about whether the teams would surpass the point total of the Mountaineers' 48-45 victory over UT in football last October.

Trailing by 10 points with less than four minutes left in regulation, WVU had missed each of its first 14 3-point attempts. Then Kevin Noreen swished one from the right wing with 3:14 left in the game, and Juwan Staten hit another less than two minutes later. Harris' go-ahead 3-pointer was WVU's third in a row.

“We had opportunities to pack it in and we didn't,” WVU coach Bob Huggins said.